Two hundred days of Rishi Sunak

RISHI Sunak has managed to last 200 days as UK prime minister. That is four times as long as his predecessor Liz Truss. But the fragility of the party that he leads is such that knives are out on the back benches. In a way, it has nothing to do with him. No matter how well he performs, the Conservative party is in the throes of a nervous breakdown. You do not have to take my word for it. There are telltale signs.

The first sign is the loss of seats and councils at the local elections on May 4. Normally, the party in power always loses seats. The test is how many and how badly. Not being a seasoned politician, Sunak ventured a prediction which proved somewhat optimistic – or rather not pessimistic enough. A seasoned operator would have sounded much gloomier, predicting a big loss and then hailing the actual loss as a triumph.

Divisions over Brexit

Given the record of the 2019 Tory government, which has already had three prime ministers (five since 2015), the deep malaise of the UK’s oldest party is obvious. You can see it in the recent put-down of Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, by the Speaker in the House of Commons. This has to do with the inner party warfare continuing from the UK’s departure from the European Union (EU).